if all else fails (head toward the sun, love)
by FlickingCandle
Summary: Pixal has observed that the other ninja haven't been concerned about Zane, recently, and that's a problem that leads to another that Pixal will make sure to lead to another. If something happens to her Zane, she wants something to happen to someone else. Zane didn't mean to teach her to defend a loved one, but he was a darn good teacher. (Includes all ninja: Cole, Kai, Jay, Lloyd)
1. Chapter 1

if everything else fails (head toward the sun, love)

Description: "There _is a ninety-seven percent fail rate. This is not wise. Listen to me. Do not do this." Pixel repeated for the eighth time in the minute. "Ther-"_

 _"Pixel," I said, closing my eyes so I could fully see her. It would be the last time. "go to Jay's headset and stay there." I waited for her to disappear, but she shook her head firmly._

 _"No." She said, eyes narrowing. "You have been abandoned by everyone else. I will not leave you."_

 **A/N:** Oh dearie me! It's been over two months since I updated Weaponry Wipes Away the Free. Goodness, I'll get to it. Sorry, I'm afraid I'm having a difficult time right now, my life is getting so busy near the end of the school year. I'll try my best, though!

The sky was blue, birds flew, and Zane sacrificed himself every other day.

Zane was probably the reason Kai wasn't captured and involved in a street gang, and the reason Cole didn't get burned at the stake for having inhuman strength.

He took the blows as his being was- robotically and automatically. And he didn't flinch at taking them, moving to block each and every one of them if his body allowed. Pixel most definitely didn't allow, but she couldn't override his commands when he concentrated enough.

Pixel always maximized the screen on her face when she wanted to talk to him about something out of the mission, and when he could afford to, he closed his eyes to completely see her. It was an odd relationship, but it worked.

When night fell and Zane laid down on the bunk, he went into power-save mode. But he was still conscious, and so was Pixel. They talked and he ran virus scans in the background, so the usually conserved Pixel was forced to talk more.

"Zane," she asked one night while he began his check. "are you not concerned about your brothers?" Zane tilted his virtual head, eyebrows knitting in concern for his fellow ninja.

"What do you mean? Is there something wrong with them?"

"You show concern for your friends. They do not show concern for you." answered Pixel, a little worry of her own leaking into her robotic voice.

"Based on what I have witnessed through your eyes, they seem to show concern for each other. But not you. What makes you different that they do not exhibit the same concern for you?"

Zane thought for a moment, remembering all the times they didn't bother to check on him after he got hurt- took their hits or otherwise.

"I do not know. Perhaps they do not think I feel pain." Pixel frowned, and numbers flashed through her eyes in a moment only Zane caught and could ever catch.

"No. They once asked you if you were alright, searching through your memory banks. If you were hurt. That was the last time, and that was two years ago." confirmed Pixel, the disdain for the other ninja in her voice playing into the growing frown on her face. "Zane, I am concerned."

He didn't notice, but Zane closed his eyes tighter. "It is all okay, Pixel. It is not their fault."

Pixel made a note to address the other ninja with her concern- especially the green one- Lloyd. The one to whom all of the concern that should've been going to Zane went.

She spoke to them that morning, when Zane was out buying groceries. She jumped into Jay's headset and told Zane she would be discussing how to fix the destroyed sails, (Kai had set fire to them a day before) when Nya wasn't there, with the ninja.

"I must discuss a recurring problem with you. This concerns Zane." She said as soon as he was far away enough that he couldn't pick up her dialogue. "You must listen." All of their interests were piqued- they leaned closer to Jay's headset.

"What's wrong with him? Did a virus get into his system?" Kai asked. His voice sounding all too eager. Pixel's frown returned with a vengeance. She decided to give them a hint of the lesson they were about to receive.

"And I suppose you'd like that?" She asked, voice cold and more robotic than it had ever sounded. "For him to be in danger again?" Kai looked shocked, along with the rest of the ninja, but now Pixel was relentless. She'd been waiting all this time to tear into the ninja for their misdeeds- neglecting android feelings, showing complete indifference to death of robots that still had a conscious! She had emotions now- Zane had taught her that. And she intended to use them.

"Androids are ALIVE! They have FEELINGS! You need to LEARN that, learn that Zane feels as much pain as you- and learn that EVERYTHING you do has a consequence. We are different, and yet Zane LOVES you all SO much. It is time you do the same!" She yelled through the speaker, her virtual self not needing to take a breath.

They recoiled. Just as Pixel expected them to. But she moved with Jay, his headset draped around his neck.

"We know that, Pixel." Cole said, taking an uneven breath. "We know that." Pixel calmed herself, composing her anger and throwing away the data of it.

"You repeated yourself. That shows a sign of unease and uncertainty." Her tone was tranquil and smooth, but she was still boiling. Pixel had felt second-hand emotions like this from Zane before, but she had never experienced them herself- to that extent- until that moment. That moment of pure, boiling rage. It wasn't just about them not caring about Zane anymore. It was about them not caring about androids. Machines. Breakable things and things that could be replaced.

Things without a soul.

Is that why they didn't care? Is that why they didn't bother?

She didn't notice she was hissing the words until Jay mumbled something only him and herself caught. "We..."

"Save your talk. Apologize to Zane."

"...yeah."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Description: _The ninja talk. It's long overdue, in Pixel's opinion._

 **A/N:** Ugh, this is bad. But might as well. (Please review. I'm such a dang review-hog.)

The three ninja sat in silence, Pixel having long gone back to Zane. Cole opened his mouth, then closed it. But Kai bit his lip, and the bullet.

"Are we actually that bad?" He asked quietly, and returned to biting his lip right after. Cole sighed, abandoning all attempts at communication to put his head in his hands.

"Apparently," Jay responded, voice laced with hatred that was, evident by the way he dug his nails into his palms, directed at everyone and everything except the two androids. "if Pixel says anything, it's probably true. We messed up." Cole took his head out of his hands, groaning.

"Obviously," said Cole, glaring at the floor. "how long have we been doing this? Ignoring him?" Kai gulped, looking up into the lamp.

"It's not that we're been ignoring him," Lloyd spoke for the first time in an hour. "it's just that we've been ignoring his feelings." The other ninja glared at the golden one, who was making his best attempt at glaring at himself.

"Not helping!" Jay snapped. But after a moment he sighed. "We've also been ignoring his need for comfort." Kai looked at him, gaze searching for something. Then he also heavily sighed.

"Sensei Wu said to fix a problem, we should get to the root of it. What else have we done?" His voice was much too loud in the otherwise silent space, as if he were trying to talk over someone else. But for the quiet area, it was as if he were screaming. After another minute of utter silence, he spoke again, this time, voice quieter but much heavier. "If we're going to fix this, we need to know."

"We attend to his injuries last," Jay began, fidgeting with his gi. "I think they hurt the most." Everyone paused at this, recollecting their memories of when Zane was hurt- his arm ripped off a few times, wires frayed many more. And half of his face was torn off on multiple occasions. His power source, too, was often messed with when he was captured or surrounded by enemies. They now understood one reason Zane loved Pixel so much- she attended to him, she gave him that much needed love and care he lacked in other people. His family, his friends didn't even bother to repair him when his arm was torn off, instead bandaging their legs for the eighth time.

"Uh," Kai began, leaving his mouth open while he comprehended his incoming words. "we haven't thanked him for dying yet." The air grew thicker and thicker with each statement.

"That's so messed up," Cole groaned. "why hasn't Zane talked about this before?" Lloyd bit the inside of his cheek.

"He's an android. He might've thought this was normal, but it's obviously had an effect on him. Pixel probably talked with him." Replied Lloyd, and the air was suffocating.

"Pixel talked with him," said Kai. "we're going to have to next."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Description: _Zane didn't dream, and he didn't need rest. Why would he sleep? After all, he could be training._

 **A/N:** I have a poll on my profile! It's about what I should write next, after I'm done with this. Please, if you have time, check it out! I'd love to hear your feedback.

Zane didn't sleep. He simply shut down into power-saving mode, consciousness still whirring in the background though his external functions ceased. He climbs into bed each night and pulls up the covers, but he doesn't stay that way for long. He shuts down, he talks with Pixal, discussing everything and anything.

But even Pixal has to rest, though she no longer had a body. Every night, when they're out of topics to talk about and they're mentally exhausted because okay even robots get tired of math questions sometimes- though most of their existence and being can be explained by numbers and even an amount of philosophical questions- Pixal shuts down as well, leaving Zane in silence until he decides to shut completely off.

He never does, hasn't since he discovered he was an android. Zane simply relays the command to stop power save mode and goes up on deck, as silently as he can. Though, being an android, it was quite easy.

The wooden shurikens he used for training were too dull. Too... Off. They didn't seem right, so he took it upon himself to switch them out for his metal ones. He repaired the equipment afterwards, though he had to do so early in the morning, when Pixal wouldn't scold him for being up so late. Afterward, there were dents in his hands and dust on his gi. He felt only an echo of pain from the dents, a reminder of what it used to feel like, he presumed. While Pixal yelled at him for doing so and something about it not being an echo, he would just ignore her and fix them the next night, right before he trained. They only felt like splinters, so he treated them like splinters.

Zane didn't dream. He was an android, he didn't have a soul to do so. When he closed his eyes, all he saw was Pixal and binary code.

So he didn't sleep. What was there to sleep for if he didn't need rest, what was there to sleep for if he couldn't head off to dreamland?

He ran those questions through his head once, came to a conclusion that he really didn't need to come to with a calculator, and never ran them through again.

Pixal protested, but in the end, she fell asleep. She dreamed enough for the both of them, having changed her software months before.

'It's amazing dream... you always were special.' If only she knew. His only dreams were the ones the prophecy dictated him to have.

Sometimes, the prophecy was the only thing that lulled him to sleep.

And sometimes, the prophecy was the only thing that kept him from lulling off to sleep and falling on the sword he placed right in front of him, blade up.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Description: _Pixal's view on everything. Thoughts she would never share. Not that anyone except Zane ever asked._

 **A/N:** Can you tell this chapter was rushed? 'Cause it was. I was just finishing up my first copy of this chapter when my older brother had a concert, so I finished up and tried to make it as good as possible. I'll be in Arizona during the rest of this week, so I tried to get my weekly update in. Also, new cover photo!

Chapter Four: The Art Of Taking

Zane was a giver. Pixal could vouch for such. He had given her alone so many things: emotions, life, a home, and something to fight for. Something to stand for. But sometimes, she wished he would put a cap on how many things he gave- never had the ninja before out a cap on how much they took.

They took far too much, in Pixal's opinion. She noticed the dents on Zane's hands. She analyzed the training equipment in the morning and pieced together what had happened within a fraction of a second.

But she didn't say a word. She kept silent, instead of scolding Zane, which probably wouldn't have helped anyway. But she didn't just watch, she fixed things when Zane didn't realize it. When he finally laid down to rest, (to keep up appearances to the other ninja) she awoke. Every night, she would take over his body and repair a little bit of the damage that had been done, the scratches on paint she filled in, the fraying wires stretched from punches and kicks. She would sigh and silently chide him, but wait for the morning. Pixal mentally took stock of everything he had done to himself, planning on berating him for every last thing.

Yet, even though she was constantly getting angry at him, Pixal couldn't stay annoyed for long. She loved Zane for so many reasons, and though she wouldn't happily do it, she'd rather attend to his injuries than rebuke him.

'It was all the ninja's fault,' she grumbled. 'They taught him this.' Taught him what? Taught him that his self-being and the stress he put on himself didn't matter in the slightest. Taught him that he didn't matter in the slightest, other than his fighting ability.

Zane didn't know, but she recorded his thoughts in the background. While he kicked through punching bags and iced the floor, he wondered about things he would never share with Pixal. Dark thoughts, and thoughts pondering his ability. He worried about if they only kept him on the team because of his ice, and he worried about what would happen when they reached the end of their destiny. Would they split up, going their separate ways? Or would they stay together?

He also wondered about his immortality. His old robot body was at least thirty, fourth years old, at least. And it still looked sixteen. Though his new one was brand new and a lot shiner than before, he still looked sixteen-ish. Pixal searched through his thoughts and realized that he knew that he would still look the same when the other ninja had their first kids. When their kids had kids. When they died. When their entire family name died out, a million or trillion years down the line.

He would still look sixteen.

Pixal didn't search further than the thought about what would happen when everyone else was gone.

She always deleted the memory of those thoughts from her own database.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Description: _Cole dealt with his problems by hurting things. But this time, that's where the problem came from._

 **A/N:** Okay, I'll admit, I'm an awful writer. But being eleven, I suppose I still have more time left to actually do something? Cole will probably be OOC at least one time during this chapter. Sorry. By the way, this story takes place after the canon events of the Tournament of Elements.

 **Thank you for all of your support!**

-Chapter Five: Red Light, Blue Light, Dead Light-

"I- can't- believe-" Cole grunted, swinging his fist back again. He let it connect with the punching bag with a heavy thud, swinging it back. He moved out of the way and panted, fists clenched.

It had been the same story for over an hour, now. His hand was sore but his head felt worse, thoughts pounding at the sides of his skull as his hand beat the bag. He grunted out every excuse as it came to his head, he yelled out every insult and attempt to make himself feel better.

They couldn't be in his head when he talked to Zane about it. The conversation would be about Zane, and after that, he'd make sure everything was about him too. The poor kid was ignored for the longest time.

"Hey." Cole said without turning around, sensing the presence of his his fire wielding brother. Sensei Wu had taught them long ago to sense the energy of their comrades, and Kai's aura was very distinct. It was fiery, biting like the sparks that came from the fire he issued with his hands.

Kai came into the room, stretching his arms. "You here for the same reason?" Cole asked. The word Zane bit at the back of his throat. And the question posed in his mind bubbled to his lips.

"What are we going to say?" No more words needed to be said for both of the ninja to know they were talking about the android. Kai sighed, abandoning his first strike at a training dummy.

"I don't know. Where do we even begin?" His voice was tinged with desperation, and rightfully so. They caused the problem, they knew they had to fix it. But they didn't know how- how would do you confront someone made of metal? How would they confront someone who had no idea about the problem in the first place, but was obviously affected by it?

As if expecting the question, Cole answered immediately.

"I have no idea. I've been thinking about it for the past hour or so." He paused in favor of hitting the bag again. "You?" Kai grunted.

"No clue." He replied, and he didn't need to say anything else. Kai sat down and put his chin in his hands. Cole grunted again, then looked outside the window. The sky was dark.

Had it been hours already? Time was supposed to fly by when you enjoyed yourself, not mulled in angry thoughts. But it worked anyway- he wasn't really up to doing anything else today.

Cole was ready to throw down with anything. Anything at all. Well, maybe everything except a certain white ninja. Pixal he would, though. She caused this stupid pro-

No. It was the other ninja's fault. They'd caused it. They had to take responsibility for it, and fix it.

That didn't mean he couldn't consider it a stupid, avoidable problem. In particular, extremely avoidable if he had done one thing.

Cole was earth. He was strong and steady, the one who could carry the sky if he had to in order to save the things on his surface. He was the one from whom fire stemmed, lightning raged, water flowed, and ice grasped.

But... ice didn't grasp. Zane was ice. He was cold and calm, collected and yet shone like the stars if given the chance. He danced with the light, played with it and smiled with it, reflecting the moon and the stars and the sun though it would be his downfall. He helped, he forgave. But he was completely ice. He was fragile, and cracked under enough pressure and weight. And when ice cracked, everything above it was thrown beneath, to whatever lied hidden underneath the cold sheen.

Zane was ice.

And Zane cracked.

But when ice cracked or was about to, Cole was supposed to shoot his powers beneath the ice. To share the burden, the pain. He was supposed to extend the earth beneath the ice to help it from breaking, shattering, and bringing down everything above it.

Ice was beneath everything except the earth.

Ice was beneath the stars, and when it broke, the stars seemed to come crashing down, to Cole.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Description: _Lloyd was the Golden Ninja, the linchpin of nearly every prophecy. He followed them and completed them like clockwork._

 _The prophecy said nothing, absolutely nothing about how to talk to an android ninja about a problem._

 **A/N:** Ehehe... I rushed this. Today was not my week, but you all managed to make to wonderful with all your comments and support! Thank you~~ more Zane angst coming your way, Lloyd style! Also, I posted a new Zane one-shot on my account! If you want to check out more Zane angst besides this.

-Chapter Six: if the sun doesn't shine (cast your eyes heavenward)-

Lloyd was not someone who was easy to talk to. He wasn't Jay, the lighthearted kid-at-heart who could probably run a massive nursery by himself if he needed the cash. He wasn't even Kai, who was also incredibly good with children, but not as good as Jay.

He was good at leading. He wasn't good at talking, to anyone or anything but his team.

Sometimes he wanted to blame the ninja for making him miss out on that childhood experience, but he couldn't bring himself to feel hatred at the only ones who believed in him from the start.

'Zane didn't have anyone to believe in him,' Lloyd thought as the feelings of guilt pricked at the edges of his already shame-clouded mind. 'Or at least, he didn't think anyone did.'

Which did not help his conscious at all, he noted.

Zane wasn't easy to hold a conversation with either. He wasn't familiar with many social queues, and though he spoke clearly, his words were often muddled with unnecessary complications; mentions of probability, and obscure words hardly found in simple conversation. Much unlike Lloyd, who was simply hard to talk to because of his awkwardness.

When placed together in a one on one conversation, it was likely that they'd both end up in awkward silence that Lloyd would usually end up breaking with a cough or a cheesy joke that hardly made sense to anyone but the two- the Golden Ninja and the living android.

Naturally, Lloyd was trying to find the words to talk to Zane. One responsibility of being the Golden Ninja that he didn't exactly like as much as the others was that he was the one who took the needed responsibility of handling the press. He was the one the new reporters flocked to first to interview after what they happily dubbed 'the ninja-calling events'.

...none of the ninja were on board with that name.

Though Lloyd was often prepared for their questions with already recited and practiced answers, interviewers had the uncanny ability to ask the strangest questions- 'what do the other ninja sing in the shower?' and 'who on the ship is a cat person and who is a dog person?' were among the oddest questions Lloyd found himself scrambling to answer to.

So it was a well known fact that he was more than a little bit inclined to simple conversation, one skill Zane didn't seem to possess among a plethora of other abilities, oddly enough (which was also a well known fact among those who knew him).

Lloyd didn't talk if he didn't have to, which meant he didn't talk to himself. But just this once, he would make an exception.

"We messed up," he whispered, and the words rung, empty, throughout the dark room.

He hoped he could make more exceptions for Zane in the future.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Description: _To Jay, Kai was the hotheaded one of the team. But Zane was the levelheaded one just as much, and the one who sealed the cracks between the elements with ice no matter how much the fire burned._

 **A/N:** Time for a little bit of comic relief to distract you from the increasingly heavy stuff. And a little bit of fluff. Also, Jay loves in a strange way.

-Chapter Seven: hold on tight (sleep better at night)-

To Jay, Kai was the hotheaded one of the team. He was constantly angry (usually at Jay) and the Ninja of Lightning could hardly find it within himself to really forgive him for every outburst of anger. He did usually forgive Kai eventually, but Jay held grudges. And he really couldn't help but hold a tiny one against Kai. Their characters just didn't mesh well, each of them always competing for the spotlight, and their constant fighting over the center stage usually resulted in one or both of them huffing and walking off with a heavier heart, both much too bitter and prideful to admit defeat to another no matter how much they wanted to. But after every fight, either Cole would talk one into confronting and apologizing, Lloyd would encounter the two and decide it was a time for their lecture about the importance of teamwork that probably was recited word for word from Wu's journal, or Zane would bring the two together and talk to them in the quiet, firm way only he could and mend their bonds, a further example of why he possesed the power of ice.

Of course, the other ninja besides the Lightning/Fire duo fought. Cole and Jay had mainly put aside their feud over Nya, per her wishes, but the former, level-headed leader sometimes couldn't find it within himself to handle the flashy Jay, but managed to let only bits of anger out, instead saving it for the battlefield. Lloyd didn't fight much with the ninja, but when he did, things got messy real quickly.

Strangely, Zane never fought with anyone. But boil down the other ninjas' problems to their core and the reason Zane never had a feud became clear, as well as something else.

Cole and Jay still fought over Nya, no matter how much Cole insisted he was over her, there was still bad blood between the two. But nobody but Zane courted Pixal. The two androids were over the moon for each other, Jay doubted that even if someone else tried to court Pixal she'd outright reject him. How in the world would that happen anyway, with Pixal stuck in Zane's head?

Jay and Kai fought for the spotlight, the center stage. As so it seemed. But really, if they had to admit it, it was all for the fangirls. The fans of Zane, however, were quiet and conservative, they kept to themselves mostly and didn't cheer loudly. And Zane understood that, and he was content with the small amount of fans he had, no matter how devoted. He didn't like to be in the limelight, either, instead letting Lloyd and who ever wanted to be in the spotlight at that time take it.

He didn't really have any personal feuds. But he healed them as if they were his own, though usually not swiftly.

Not even many villians had something against him to a personal level! Usually, the villians regarded him the same as the other ninja, albeit knowing that he was 'the smart one'. But there was one exception... Cryptor, the long-deactivated Nindroid. The black android loathed Zane, and though Zane didn't care much for him as well, no other villian could come close to the level of hatred Cryptor had for Zane. Before he was deactivated, Cryptor had caught Zane out amongst the other ninja and completely wreaked him before trying to rip out his power source, which shocked him and sent him into temporary stasis long enough for Zane to freeze him and run. The evil android regarded the white ninja as a sort of traitor, hating him at an extemely personal level.

Though Zane didn't really hate him back, Jay had plently of anger toward the android. He was made out of the same blueprints as Zane was! Just scanned and made a little bit differently, as Pixal had revealed once out of the control of the Overlord. Jay was an inventor just as much as Doctor Julien, though a lot worse at it. He would hate Cryptor out of respect for the deceased inventor just as much as the black-wearing android hated his fellow white ninja.

And as a fellow brother to Zane, he was prepared to hate a lot of people who meant more than Cryptor. To make up for the emotions the Nindroid hadn't learned.

Heck, he was going to teach Zane everything about being human. Just his duty as a fellow human being.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N** : I have no excuse. I got lazy, and I'm so incredibly sorry. But at least I'm churning this out all at once at 1:07 am! Also, I dropped a Nexo Knight's reference somewhere.

I really dislike Misako's character, so I decided to play around with her just a little.

Oh yeah, and I dropped my opinion of Zane somewhere there, too. He's actually the most ninja-like out of his brothers- I mean, they act more like knights than ninja most of the time. Charging in without a care in the world. It irks me that Zane is the pretty much the only one prone to sneaking around rather than the alternative of charging in yelling like maniacs.

Description: _Zane reminded Misako of her son, somehow. She knew why, and couldn't resist the stab in her heart whenever the android walked into the room with that overly innocent smile on his bright face._

 _-_ Chapter Eight: gilded picture frames (they're grinning down at me)-

Misako was always reminded of the life she couldn't have when she looked at a certain ninja, and strangely, not her son. Her reminder was the ever reliable, ever there White Ninja. Or, as he would shyly ask to be called instead of his former alias (a fact that made her even sadder), the Titanium Ninja.

The boy reminded her so much, way too much, of Lloyd. The resemblance was hard to see- to everyone but Misako.

In her eyes, Zane was almost how she imaged her son would look like after years of not seeing him. She had crafted an image inside of her head- one of a very proud ninja with a gentle smile on his face, blond hair a little bit messy and swept to the side as it always had been in childhood, and happy, wide eyes that seemed to glow.

The android was pretty much the spitting image of what she had in her mind. He always stood with perfect posture, proud of his position as protecter of the ones who could not protect themselves. And while he was a terrifying force in battle, the most assassin-like and deadly out of his four brothers, once out of combat he usually wore a gentle smile on his face if he were in a cheerful mood. His blond hair was almost the exact same shade as Lloyd's when he was a young child, though it had darkened since then.

And his eyes were the thing that Misako would not distinguish from the strong figure in her mind- his eyes were always bright, like little lighthouses that the ninja would flock to for a safe point in battle- pretty much _nobody_ could or would touch your if you were under the protection of Zane in the Bounty, except for your parents or Sensei. He was a point of protection, and in the house he was more of a knight than a ninja.

Misako, for all her intelligence, never could really distinguish a samurai from a ninja. She knew they had different combat styles, different styles of operation as well. But if you boiled them down, in her eyes, they could be the same.

To her, a ninja was protection. Like Garmadon. Like Wu. They were always ready to protect her from anything, whether it be a vine she tripped on or a scary guy at the pub who tripped over her. They never preferred fighting, but would spring up and crack their knuckles at any time if it meant that she would be out of danger.

Knights, too, were protection, and so were samurai. At their bones, their roots, they were meant to protect.

And Zane, with all his innocent, wide-eyed questions wondering about certain social queues and his kitten-like smiles, was ready to protect at any moment, as well. His ninja gi was usually on, wherever you found him- either at the beach or a opera. And most could not tell, but he always had shurikens ready to fly beneath his sleeves, and the mechanism that threw small little ninja stars was usually one of the first parts he would repair after a non-friendly fight. The android would have it primed throughout his repair process as well while Pixal scanned the area for remaining threats.

During his repairs, he gave Pixal control of his weapon system as well, if she wished. As just a little extra precaution, if he ever got startled enough to prohibit his rational thought for a second. Pixal would cover for him. Just like he would forever cover for Pixal.

Misako knew she was projecting onto the poor android, but who could really blame her?

Evidently, the Cloud Kingdom, as in the next second, Pixal popped onto her phone and started yelling about 'her poor Nindroid'.


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N** : Oops. This chapter hit me hard.

Description _: 'The good thing about nice people is that they don't like hurting people wth stuff like this.'_

-Chapter 9: frame of mind-

Kai didn't know how to respond when Nya barged into the room he was in, face red with what he recognized not as a blush but pure rage. Her clothes had splotches of oil and grime on them, and there was a rather threatening wrench in her pocket. She'd been helping Jay put in a new screen for the Destiny's Bounty.

And his sister never abandoned work unless she...

"KAI!" She barked, pointing to the floor beneath her feet. "Here. Now." The samurai's voice was steely with anger.

...she was really, really mad.

Nya was still coursing with rage when he dragged himself out of his bed to attend to his sister. He half-stomped, half-dragged himself across the wooden floors and placed himself right in front of his sister, barely a foot between them. But Nya dragged him closer and growled.

His sister. Actually growled. Kai was in some deep trouble, and he knew it.

The red ninja gulped, suddenly awake, like he'd drunk five pots of coffee at once. An angry Nya was a bad thing. A very bad thing. The bad bad bad thing of bad bad bad things. Kai fought to keep his limbs from beginning to flee.

"Ok, what's got you down?" He asked nervously, barely moments before she released her grip on his shirt and pushed him backward roughly.

"You guys got me chewed out by Wu," she hissed. Kai's legs felt like something between ready-to-bolt and ready-to-become-jelly. He'd much rather prefer the latter option, but Nya was one thing he could never bolt from. In all their years on their own, without any parents, his little sister had always relied on him, and he knew he couldn't abandon her. Even as annoying as a toddler Nya could get.

The fact that he couldn't run could also be attributed to the fact that he knew Nya could catch him even if he tried. "W-U."

"...and?" Kai questioned timidly, though he already knew the answer would be more shouting. Nya put her hands on her hips.

"Kai. You know why."

He deflated. "Zane."

"Says we haven't been acknowledging him. I know I have! But I doubt you've!" She ranted, voice growing steadily louder. "Have you?"

Kai put a hand on her shoulder. At the contact, she seemed to shrink. "We're sorry, sis. What did Sensei say?"

Her voice was much softer, a far cry from what her shout had been. "Said he deserves as much love as anyone else, which is completely true if you haven't noticed- said he needs a person t- no, someone to reel him back in. Show him that he's doesn't have to give everything up for us." The breath she took rattled in her chest. "Show him that he's important. That he's loved."

Nya was shaking. It obviously hit close to home, the issue Master Wu had made clear to her. She recited the words almost robotically, as if the words she was speaking were already familiar to her. Had already been repeated in her own head.

Kai pulled his sister closer, hugging her tight. It was a familiar scene, one they'd repeated many times in the blacksmith shop. Great with her hands from age 7, Nya had been the one who'd helped earn most of their living. Yet, Nya had felt unappreciated. They'd always had just enough to eat good meals everyday, but it was still an awful experience for a young girl.

Though he wasn't as talented with his hands as his gifted sister, Kai still possessed many skills. He had been the one to go out on the streets, dirty and tired from long days in the forge, and ask sympathetic people if they'd buy from the shop. Always managing to get a few sales from the kind passerby, often not even having to sell a weapon.

'The good thing about nice people, Nya,' he'd gently explain while he counted the few coins they had gotten that day. 'is that they don't like hurting people with stuff like this. Pretty sweet, right?'

Nya had long gotten over her problem with years of her brother showering appreciation on her, but the thirst for approval always was in the back of her head. In the moments that she wasn't tinkering with a new prototype of some gadget, she was thinking. Sometimes, the need for validation got dragged up back to the surface and she spent a while beating it back into the ground.

It didn't affect her much, but it never went away for good.

"You're great, lil sis. Don't forget it."

"'Course, you big lug." A pause. "Make sure our Nindroid doesn't, either."

"Already on it."


End file.
